UPDF Is Impartial

Jan 24, 2001

CONTROVERSY HAS broken out among presidential candidates over who has the greatest amount of support in the Uganda Peoples Defence Force.

CONTROVERSY HAS broken out among presidential candidates over who has the greatest amount of support in the Uganda Peoples Defence Force. On Monday Army Commander Jeje Odongo issued a statement accusing candidates Kizza Besigye and Aggrey Awori of bringing the army into disrepute. Besigye is now angry that Odongo has criticised him but to a large extent he brought it upon himself. Besigye has been claiming that most of the army are behind him but then misconstrued Museveni's comments at his rally in Rukingiri last week as meaning that the army belongs to him personally. In fact President Museveni had retorted in Rukingiri that the UPDF could not be 90 per cent behind Besigye. "The army belongs to the state", Museveni said. "It respects me because I am president". He told the rally: "I advise my younger brother Besigye to first win the election before he can start acting like a president. The army cannot now listen to Besigye more than it does to Museveni". In other words, the UPDF is today 100 per cent behind Museveni and will completely back whichever candidate wins the March election. It is the army's constitutional duty to give its full and unconditional support to whoever is the President of Uganda. This is why Jeje got annoyed. There are indeed many operational problems and constraints that can be identified within the UPDF. These are legitimate areas for presidential candidates to address. All over the world presidential candidates adopt positions on whether to increase or decrease defence spending. But it is not fair to insinuate that the popularity of presidential candidates within the UPDF is the battleground where the election will be decided. Uganda has come further than that since 1986. We should give the UPDF the respect it deserves. Ends

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